On September 19, 2001, the Boston Globe printed an op/ed, "Sticky
Questions for the Elite," by Derrick Z. Jackson of its staff.
The piece says the U.S. is partially to blame for the attacks
of terrorists because of our wealth, our environmental policies,
our SUVs and our suburban living. The piece explicitly says that
God is not happy with us.

When Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson made similar comments,
a media firestorm resulted.

Selected quotes from the Jackson piece:

"God cannot be all that happy with a nation that is 5
percent of the world's population, produces a quarter of Earth's
carbon dioxide emissions, yet walks out of global warming talks."

and

"...it is unclear how much of America's business is worthy
of God's blessing. So much of it is so obviously decadent, a nation
of SUVs backing out of huge, energy-sucking suburban houses to
purchase insane stores of food at Sam's Club - with a stop at
Starbucks along the way."

and

"Not so easy to consider is whether all Americans, with
the vomitous mass carnage on our own soil, are finally ready to
sacrifice any part of our way of life that contributes every day
to the envy, jealousy, and, for some, the hatred of our flag.
Americans must ask themselves in the coming months: Is this war
solely to get rid of terrorists - as of course should be done
- or also to maintain our conspicuous opulence and vastly disproportionate
consumption of world resources?

On Sunday many Americans went to church to ask God to bless
America. If we were asking God simply for wisdom and for balm
to touch grieving families, that would be one thing. But from
all the giant sport utility vehicles adorned with American flags,
it is an open question whether we also asked God to bless our
way of life that damages the environment and makes us so dependent
on oil that it has gotten us into a deadly tangle of relationships
in the Middle East."

Response to Jackson

Tom Randall of The National Center for Public Policy Research
has written a response:

To the Boston Globe:

Derrick Jackson's "Sticky questions for the elite"
column in the Globe's September 19 edition could have been more
aptly titled, "Gross distortions from a guy who invokes God
to reinforce his own distortions."

He strongly implied that God should not bless the American
way of life, particularly capitalism, then went off on a "figures
lie and liars figure" argument.

While bemoaning the fact that the United States comprises five
percent of the world's population and produces 25 percent of the
world's carbon dioxide, he conveniently leaves out the fact that
we produce 25 percent of the world's goods and services. Then
he later condemns Harvard University President Larry Summers for
saying that more "dirty" industries should be relocated
to less developed countries. However, that is precisely what the
Kyoto Climate Change Treaty, which I presume from his column Mr.
Jackson endorses, would have done if the U.S. Senate had not rejected
its terms in a 95-0 vote.

The SUVs he repeatedly condemns are a direct outgrowth of a
top-down, government effort to increase auto fuel economy with
Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards. These caused
autos to be downsized to such an extent that many Americans were
forced to get the carrying space they needed by turning to the
truck-based SUVs. And they found they liked them. And average
fuel economy went up instead of down.

Then, in a litany of statistics he details how much more we
have and consume than the poorer countries of the world.

How many of these are capitalist? None.

How many have command and control socialist-style economies?
All.

How many are ruled by totalitarian despotic regimes? Many.

How many direct our foreign aid to their rulers instead of
the people? Most.

Governments in these countries have made their people poor,
not the United States, where true freedom reigns and under it
people prosper. It is also where, incidentally, by nearly every
measure used by the Environmental Protection Agency, our air and
water are dramatically cleaner and healthier than they were just
30 years ago. They are because we made cleaning them a national
goal and succeeded in achieving it.

Mr. Jackson can cloak himself in all the hypocritical hair
shirts he wants. For me, I'll wear the flag of the United States
of America - the freest, most successful and most generous nation
in history. And, I proudly ask for a kind and loving God's blessing
on this land and its fine people.